The Ontario potato industry has 35,000 acres, and there are about 200 growers of the main crop. The average size of a farm is hundreds of acres. When we lost all effective pesticides to control the Colorado potato beetle leading up to 1995, all we had left to control them were propane burners that went down the field hot enough to burn the feet off the beetles so they couldn't walk, and giant vacuum cleaners that went down the rows. The cost of the propane for the burners was very high, and the cost of running vacuums up and down the field twice a day is prohibitive.
In effect, we had nothing effective that worked.